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Have Pig, Will Travel

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

According to Discovery News, Pig DNA Sheds Light on Human Migration. The article states: "Humans have been domesticating pigs as a source of meat for so long that tracking their movement is a good way to trace human migration routes." A similar study conducted with rat DNA (another animal closely associated with humans) seems to confirm their findings.

I'm a naturally curious person and love learning. Sure there are concepts and ideas that I struggle to grasp (physics is beyond my comprehension) but I revel in the experience of trying to understand something which seems just out of my mental reach. And yet, I'm also torn by the loss of the mystery involved with each new discovery that is announced. Human migration is one of those mysteries that should remain somewhat elusive. Sure, I'm perfectly willing to accept (and believe) that our ancient ancestors crawled out of the ocean, climbed some trees, fell out of the same trees, stood up scratching their heads, and decided to go on a walk-about. It's a given (at least to me) that they made their up out of Africa and split off, east, west, north. They crossed some land bridges along the way that no longer exist and made some huge advances in technology along the way. Eventually reaching the four corners of the Earth. I don't need to know each place they stopped on their trip. I suppose somehow it's important in the grand scheme of things to know exactly how they got to Australia. It's not overtly clear to me at this exact moment but I'm sure it will eventually.

But what happens when there's nothing left to learn? I guess we can just blame it on the pigs...

About Me

I'm Karen, a 40' something single Canuck gal who loves funky socks, football, reading, Coca-Cola, warm cat snuggles, and french fry sandwiches on white bread. I'd also like to take over the world but I just don't have the will power.